


Wanting To Be Found

by Tori_Scribbles



Series: In A Foxes Hole [2]
Category: All For The Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: And a Hug, Angst, Bipolar Andrew Minyard, Canon-Typical Violence, Everyone Needs Therapy, M/M, Mental Health Issues, Missing Scene, NaNoWriMo2018, Possessive Andrew Minyard, Protective Andrew Minyard, The Kings Men, The Riot + Afterwards From Andrew's POV, this entire thing is about neil but he isn't actually there
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-14
Updated: 2018-11-14
Packaged: 2019-08-23 15:19:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,800
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16621475
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tori_Scribbles/pseuds/Tori_Scribbles
Summary: Police started to rush forwards, warning the crowds back but it was too late. Once one thing had been thrown there was no stopping the rest of the crowd. An empty cooler was launched over people’s heads and Andrew stopped short to watch as Dan fell back to avoid it. She looked at where it landed for a second with scared and angry eyes, before letting Matt pull her forwards as the two sides crashed together with the team in the middle.Andrew moved on instinct. He grabbed Nicky and Kevin who were closest to him and thankfully Nicky got the message, grabbing Aaron’s arm, pulling him with them.





	Wanting To Be Found

**Author's Note:**

> This is my sixth attempt at posting this because Ao3 kept crashing everytime I tried.  
> So, here it is. This, as the tags suggest, is set during the Riot in The Kings Men and immediately afterwards when Neil goes missing.

Andrew’s grip around his racket tightened as Aaron swore and a bottle smashed. His eyes scanned the crowd for the person who threw it but each angry person blended in with the next. A badly aimed shoe flew over their heads and a glass bottle smashed somewhere behind them.

Police started to rush forwards, warning the crowds back but it was too late. Once one thing had been thrown there was no stopping the rest of the crowd. An empty cooler was launched over people’s heads and Andrew stopped short to watch as Dan fell back to avoid it. She looked at where it landed for a second with scared and angry eyes, before letting Matt pull her forwards as the two sides crashed together with the team in the middle.

Andrew moved on instinct. He grabbed Nicky and Kevin who were closest to him and thankfully Nicky got the message, grabbing Aaron’s arm, pulling him with them.

Not caring who was in the way, Andrew pushed them forwards, knowing that Neil could get out of a tight situation if need be.

Someone tried to ram themselves between Andrew and Nicky, with a cry of several homophobic slurs but Andrew’s grip on Nicky’s arm was unbreakable. One of the team must have dropped a racket because Andrew caught sight of a flash of orange and suddenly Matt was in front of him, catching the racket and launching it over the heads of people and out of the way as Aaron pushed the guy back into the crowd with his fist to the guy’s face.

Someone shouted Kevin’s name and the reaction was immediate, people rushed towards them from all sides. Andrew shoved a guy back with a warning shout but he turned back just in time to see Kevin’s head bounce off the tarmac. Andrew dove forward to yank the guy on top of him back and the guy's arm came back, his elbow smashing into Andrew’s cheekbone.

Pain shot up through his eye and with people shoving on all sides, he wasn’t able to regain his balance it took him to the floor. He bought a hand up to his face, and it came back wet with blood. He tried to sit up and the world spun, it took a moment for his vision to come back and once he got his bearings he lunged back towards Kevin and between him, Nicky and Aaron, they shoved the guy away. Andrew went after him, taking satisfaction as his fist smashed into the side of the strangers face again and again.

It was Aaron who grabbed his arm, stopping him from swinging again.

“We have to go!” he shouted to be heard over the riot around them. Andrew looked back towards Kevin who was being mostly held up by Nicky, a hand on this side of his head looking out of it.

Andrew scanned the crowd for the rest of the team, he could have smiled at the sight of Renee taking a man to the floor as Allison picked herself up unsteadily next to them. Once she regained her balance she aimed several sharp kicks into the man’s gut, shouting something angrily at him.

Wherever Neil, Matt and Dan were Andrew couldn’t see them, he assumed they were able to get to the bus on their own.

Ignoring the way pain shot through his face and blood dripped from his fingers Andrew clenched his jaw, stepping back to help Kevin upright.

“Move now, puke later!” he said and Kevin nodded blearily. Andrew grabbed his arm with one hand and Aaron’s with the other he pushed them forwards again.

The closer they got to the bus the thinner the crowd was, as police had started to block it off. As they stumbled towards the doors a cop pushed Andrew back roughly.

“Get off them! Let them through!” Abby ran off of the bus, all but shoving the cop out of the way to help them through. “On the bus, all of you! Now!”

Nobody argued, going straight up. Nicky dropped Kevin onto the front seat and he groaned, doubling over, looking as though he was going to throw up.

Andrew let his eyes scan the bus, Dan and a pained looking Matt were sitting a few rows back, a paramedic was bandaging Matt’s hands, asking him questions quietly. Matt looked he’d thrown himself in front of more than one racket out there.

Dan had blood down her chin but from here Andrew couldn’t tell if it came from her lip or her mouth. Her sleeve was ripped as if someone had grabbed it and she’d gone the other way and there was an anger in her eyes that Andrew had never seen in her before.

Across the aisle, Renee sat with another paramedic, a tight look on her face that Andrew knew meant she was hiding how much pain she was as the paramedic pressed her fingers into different parts of her swollen wrist. Allison hovered behind her, her clothes torn and one of her eyes swollen shut.

Andrew scanned the rest of the bus. Waiting for Neil to sit up in one of the rows, but he didn’t.

“Where’s Neil?” he said, trying to keep his voice even.

“Coach is looking for him,” Dan said, “he wouldn’t let us go after him.”

Andrew’s heart pounded in his chest and he turned back towards the door, ignoring the shouts of his teammates.

More police had arrived and the riot was starting to disperse. Andrew went to shove back through the cops but Coach was heading towards him and pushed him back towards the bus.

“You won’t find him out there,” he said roughly. “Ambulances have already left. If he’s not in one of them, he’ll find his way here. Going back out there will do nothing but get yourself killed! You hear me?”

Andrew stared straight ahead, watching the chaos unfold. Bottles and Exy Sticks were still being thrown and slurs and insults were still being screamed but amongst it all, Neil was nowhere to be seen.

“Minyard, look at me,” Wymack said sharply.  _“Andrew!”_

Andrew forced himself to meet his eyes. Wymack’s expression was fierce, his jaw set and his eyes furious.

“We will find him. I swear we’ll find him. But right now there are people on that bus who need to be in an ER and I cannot get them there and make sure you don’t go off the rails. Once we get to the hospital, we’ll see if he’s there. We’ll call around. Cops and Campus security are all looking for him, okay?” Wymack said, “We’ll find him.”

Andrew pulled his cell phone out of his pocket, flipping it open and looking down at the screen and sighed heavily. “Not if he doesn’t want to be found.”

.

The paramedics on the bus were happy to let Wymack drive to the ER, insisting that Matt, Renee and Kevin all needed to be seen by a Doctor.

The ER waiting room was unsurprisingly packed. Once the three of them were checked in and Abby gave up on trying to get Andrew treated she stepped up to the counter once again.

“I need to know if you have a patient here by the name of Neil Josten,” she said as Andrew hovered a few feet away, checking his phone again. “He was caught up in the riot. He’s one of the Palmetto Foxes, was probably wearing an orange team jacket. Blue eyes, light brown hair, tattoo on his cheekbone of a number four.”

The nurse at the desk scanned through two clipboards and shook her head. “I’m sorry, we’ve had no players bought in until you. It’s all been fans,” she said, scribbling something on a piece of paper and handing it to Abby. “These are the numbers for the two other nearest hospitals. Ambulances were diverted to both of them from the stadium.”

“Thank you,” Abby said, stepping away. She didn’t look surprised to see Andrew hovering behind her. “Sit down, be with the others, I’ll make the calls. Until I know if he’s there or not we won’t be able to do anything.”

Andrew resisted the urge to tell her that ‘that wasn’t fucking good enough’ and moved to sit next to Kevin, twisting his phone between his hands, wishing he had a cigarette instead.

An hour later Abby was still on hold to someone when Wymack’s phone rang. The Foxes – besides Matt and Dan who were being seen – exchanged tense looks as he answered it.

“Wymack.” His jaw tensed. “Okay. Thank you. Yeah, the hospital waiting room.”

He hung up.

“So?” Andrew prompted as Abby stepped back towards them looking visibly worried.

“They’ve found Neil’s bag and racket at the stadium,” Wymack said, he looked to Andrew, “his wallet and phone were inside his bag.”

Andrew felt like he was going to throw up. He knew, without a doubt in his mind that something was wrong. There was no situation where Neil ran without taking his bag or his racket. And Neil knew Andrew would know that.

He wanted to be found.

“I need to see it,” Andrew said, looking back up. “I need to see his bag. Something’s wrong.”

“I’ve called all of the hospitals,” Abby said, “there’s been nobody matching Neil’s description checked in tonight. He could just have not arrived yet. But he could just be somewhere on his own. Neil isn’t exactly known to ask for help.” But even she sounded doubtful.

“An officer is bringing Neil’s things here, from there we have to decide if we treat this as a missing person’s case,” Wymack said.

The thirty-minute wait for the officer was one of the longest in Andrew’s life. Matt and Dan came back out, Matt’s hands were tightly wrapped and there was tape on a cut on his forehead. Nicky filled them in on what was happening as both Renee and Kevin’s names were called.

Kevin shot Andrew an uncertain, almost anxious look as he followed a doctor through the door.

Andrew kept his eyes on the entrance, and the minute he caught sight of an orange racket and a familiar backpack, he shot to his feet, snatching the bag from the officer’s hand, not caring about Wymack’s warning shout.

He carried it back to the seats and emptied the bag on the floor.

Clothes, sneakers, gum shield… everything he’d expect. He dug through the wallet, there were several hundreds of dollars in cash and his ID which only confirmed that Neil hadn’t left this willingly. The cell phone was the last thing that Andrew picked up, he flipped it open and went through the notifications despite Nicky’s noise of protest.

There were missed calls and messages from almost everyone on the team including Abby and Wymack but Andrew scrolled past them to earlier in the day. There was a message received early that morning from an unfamiliar number.

Andrew narrowed his eyes and opened it.

_0_

No words. Nothing just a number. He hit the green button and held the phone to his ear.

_“This number has been disconnected. This number has been—”_

Andrew cut the call and opened the call log. Neil received a call from an unfamiliar number earlier in the evening. He redialled it and waited.

_“This number has been discon—”_

“Fuck!”

Andrew snapped the phone shut and forced himself to take several deep breaths.

“What is it?” Nicky asked, his voice hesitant like he didn’t really want to know.

“Neil got a phone call from an unfamiliar number before the riot,” Andrew said, drawing everyone’s attention. “He answered the call and now he’s gone.”

“Nobody but the team has Neil’s number,” Dan said quietly.

“And then he gets contacted by two unfamiliar numbers and goes missing hours later,” Andrew said, the unspoken  _Coincidence?_ hung in the air.

He pushed himself off of the floor, took the hospital numbers from Abby and stepped outside. The warm evening air felt thick and suffocating as he paced up and down, calling each hospital in turn. Getting the same answers again and again.

_“I’m sorry, sir. We’ve had no patients matching that description this evening. We are very busy.”_

He was nowhere. Nobody knew anything about a Neil Josten.

Andrew swallowed the bile that rose in his throat as the rest of the team came out. One of Renee’s wrists was splinted and her other hand had been bandaged, likely due to the torn skin on her knuckles than anything else.

“We’re good to go,” Abby said, tucking some paperwork into her bag. Wymack, however, was stopped in the doorway, his phone pressed to his ear and a look of shock on his face.

“Who did you say you were?” He looked up slowly, his eyes meeting Kevin’s and Andrew looked between them in confusion. “Are you sure it’s… yes, I understand... I’ll call you back.”

“What?” Kevin asked.

“That was Special Agent Browning from the FBI,” Wymack said, his eyes not leaving Kevin’s. “They’ve found Neil.”

Kevin visibly flinched at the words. “Is he—” The un-ended sentence hung in the air.

“He’s alive and in hospital… in Maryland.”

There was a moment's silence before all of the Foxes exploded with questions, voices overlapping and drowning each other out.

“Enough!  _Enough!_ All of you!” Wymack shouted and they all fell silent. “Neil… Evidence suggests that Neil was taken from the stadium by someone who works for his father.”

“But his parents are dead,” Nicky said but Kevin shook his head, speaking up for the first time in hours.

“No, his mother is, but Neil’s father is in prison. His name is Nathan Wesninski, also known as The Butcher. He worked for the Moriyamas and murdered people. He was Lord Kengo’s right-hand man,” he said, speaking to the floor to avoid the shocked and terrified looks of his teammates. “Everything Neil’s told us is a lie. His name, his birthday, his past, he even lied about his exy experience. It’s why Riko fixated on him, he trained with us when we were children. He was supposed to be number three. Neil didn’t know that until the Banquet. His mother took him and millions of the Moriyama’s money the day of his try out. He was supposed to show off, to see if he was a fit. If he was, his father would gain more power and money, if he wasn’t… his father would execute him. Tie up loose ends.”

Dan brought a hand up to cover her mouth but didn’t say anything.

“Special Agent Browning said his father got out of prison this morning,” Wymack said quietly and Andrew remembered the text message that Neil received.  _0._ 0 days until his father was free _._ Andrew wondered how many more he’d received and not told anyone

“He didn’t take his fucking time then, did he?” Nicky said.

“I told him to run after the Banquet, to get away from where Riko could find him but he wouldn’t. He said—” Kevin looked up at Andrew. “Andrew told him that he’d be safer if he was in the press constantly if he had people to watch his back. So, Riko had to make it so Neil would willingly go. That’s what Christmas was, he threatened the team so Neil would go to Evermore, understand that they were forcing his hand. But Neil wouldn’t run this time. He was planning to go to the FBI when the Moriyamas came for him. He didn’t care if he died, he just wanted to take them down with him.”

And now he was with the FBI.

It was now or never.

Andrew’s mind was reeling. He thought back to the conversation in Wymack’s apartment all those months ago and he was actually surprised at how much of it was true. Or at least it was true by what Neil had believed at the time.

Kevin knew. Kevin had known how much danger they were all in, how much danger Neil was in for months and hadn’t said a word. Hadn’t even given him a vague heads up.

“Did—” Andrew took a breath as he looked up at Kevin with a dangerous anger in his eyes. “Did you know at Christmas?” Andrew wasn’t quite sure what he was asking. Did he know what they would do to him? Did he know how bad it would be? Did he know that Neil would never be the same? Did he know there was a good chance Neil could have died in there? Did you know that Neil wasn’t planning on living out the year?

Kevin averted his eyes and it was all the answer that Andrew needed.

A hot rush of fury rose up inside of him. It was an anger that Andrew hadn’t been allowed to truly feel in years. And he was moving before he realised it, lunging forwards, his hands came up around Kevin’s throat, slamming him back into a pillar. The team around them shouted in protest but at first, they all knew better than to intervene right away. It wasn’t until Kevin started to reach for Andrew’s hands, his eyes wide and panicked that they stepped in.

Renee was at his side as Matt and Wymack tried to pull his arms away and any other time Andrew would have hit them for touching him but right now he wasn’t letting go.

“Andrew, look at me!” Renee shouted her hands up in front of her pointedly. “You need to let him go. You are no use to Neil if you’ve been arrested. Let him go.  _Now.”_

Andrew’s fingers tightened slightly more and Kevin gasped for air that wasn’t there. Renee finally grabbed him, her hands curling around Andrew’s wrists and she pressed down in a way that forced his fingers to relax. Kevin slumped to the floor and Andrew was only half aware as Aaron, Nicky and Dan pulled him away. Matt and Wymack pulled Andrew back in the opposite direction and Renee stepped in front of him, holding her hands up again.

“Are you done?” Wymack asked gruffly and Andrew didn’t respond, just pulled his arms out of their grip.

“Where is he?” Andrew said, turning back to Wymack, pointedly not looking towards Kevin. “What hospital in Maryland?”

“They didn’t say,” Wymack said and Andrew shook his head.

“Phone them back then. I’m not doing anything until I’ve seen him. All of— _that—”_ he waved a hand aimlessly towards Kevin in reference to his explanation. “—that makes him an accessory,  _at least._  If he’s going to be charged I need to see him. And even if he isn’t… it’s not like he’s not putting a target on his back by being seen with a bunch of Feds.”

“I want to see him too.”

Surprisingly, it was Allison to speak up, a look of sadness on her face under the bruises.

“We’ve all lied to each other about our pasts,” Renee said slowly, “if Neil lied to protect us, or even himself, then we can’t judge him for that. He’s no different from the rest of us.”

“And me,” Matt said, “we need to know he’s okay.”

Dan nodded in agreement. “He’s one of us,” she said fiercely and Andrew knew Neil wouldn’t have ever believed this would be their reaction. “We deserve to see him and he deserves the chance to tell us all of this himself. We’re foxes, we can’t leave each other behind like the rest of the world did.”

Nicky nodded in agreement. “I’m not answering any cops questions until I know he’s okay.”

And when even Aaron didn’t protest Wymack nodded, an expression of what Andrew imagined pride to look like.

“They’re gonna want to speak to all of us anyway. I’ll make the call,” he said, then pointed a finger in Andrew’s face. “You raise a hand to anyone else here and you don’t see him, you understand me?”

Andrew dropped his head in a nod, not willing to take the risk. “Yes, Coach.”

Wymack nodded and stepped away, casting his eyes over Abby who was checking Kevin’s throat and started dialling.

The Foxes watched as Wymack spoke, whatever the Special Agent was saying, was clearly not good enough and Wymack made sure they knew that. After ten heated moments, Wymack came back over.

“Get your stuff, we’re going to Maryland,” he said, “apparently Neil is refusing to cooperate until he’s seen us.”

Andrew gave a twisted smile and wasn’t surprised in the slightest.

“Is there anything else we should know?” Nicky asked. “Just so there’s no other unpleasant surprises this evening.”

Andrew shot him a dark glare at the light and forced airy tone of voice but Nicky was so undeterred by Andrew’s looks at this point of the night that he didn't even blink.

Wymack pulled a face, a similar expression to when he told the team what really happened to Kevin, and Andrew braced himself.

“He’s being treated for severe burns and lacerations,” he said, “they said… they said he might not look the same.” Everyone’s eyes widened in near identical looks of horror and Wymack waved the questions away. “That’s all I know. I don’t know what it means or how bad it really is.”

Anxiety and anger twisted in Andrew’s gut and he clenched his fists to stop his hands from shaking. If it was bad enough for Neil to be taken to the hospital, then it was bad. And judging by the way the rest of the team exchanged sickened looks, they were thinking the same.

“We should go,” Abby said, finally breaking the silence, “it’s gonna be a long drive.”

Nobody said a word as they headed back to the bus, and once they were inside, Andrew was the only one who had the energy to walk to the back. The rest sat in as close of a group as they could at the front of the bus, while Andrew moved to his usual bench at the back, with Neil's stuff on the seat next to him.

The only time the silence was broken was when Abby checked the bandages on Matt’s hands, apparently, Andrew had pulled one off in the struggle and he almost felt guilty as he remembered Matt taking the brunt of an exy stick during the riot. She would check on Renee and Kevin periodically too, apparently, they’d both got themselves a concussion at some point in the night.

The journey, for the most part, was agonisingly slow, and the tense silence did nothing to pass time quicker. A few people phoned families, letting them know they were safe after the riot but other than that nobody was in the mood for conversation.

Nobody spoke. Nobody slept. They just waited.

**Author's Note:**

> All mistakes are my own.  
> Kudos and comments are appreciated ♥


End file.
